Two more lawsuits have been filed against a Wind Gap
mortgage company and an employee over missing funds,
bringing the total figure of lost investments to $1.66
million.

The Blue Mountain Consumer Discount Co. and former employee
Walter "Buddy" Lambert have now been named in at
least six lawsuits from former clients. In many cases, the
plaintiffs invested in Blue Mountain to supplement pensions
and Medicare so they could live comfortably into their
retirement.

Most of the suits allege a similar scenario. A client would
invest thousands of dollars into Blue Mountain through
Lambert, who claimed to be the company's CEO, according
to lawsuits.

Consumers would receive either 9 or 10 percent annual
interest from their initial investment, but their monthly
checks stopped coming last fall.

When the clients tried to remove their investments, their
promissory notes with Blue Mountain were refused, the suits
said.

One of those suits alleges Lambert ran a Ponzi scheme
through Blue Mountain, and its shareholders either knew it
and didn't stop it or should have known.

Blue Mountain has argued Lambert is solely responsible for
the investments. Victor Scomillio, Blue Mountain's
attorney, wrote in court documents Lambert was never the
company's CEO and was not authorized to accept
investments.

Marshall Anders, Lambert's attorney, countered Lambert
was the CEO and was only acting in an official capacity when
he signed off on the investments.

In one of the new lawsuits, Ned and Sharon Garis, of East
Bangor, are suing Blue Mountain for $560,000 plus attorneys
fees and 10 percent interest, the largest amount from one
investor yet.

The Garises claim they first began investing with Blue
Mountain in 2000, but the checks stopped arriving in October
2010. Blue Mountain has 20 days to respond to the suit,
which was filed Friday.

The Garises declined to comment for this article. Scomillio did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment....